


Does He Love You?

by pringlesaremydivision



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Angst, F/M, Infidelity, M/M, Vomiting mention (nothing graphic)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 16:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10881036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pringlesaremydivision/pseuds/pringlesaremydivision
Summary: A married man, he visits me // I recieve his letters in the mail twice a weekI think he loves me and when he leaves her // He's coming out to California





	Does He Love You?

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently this has been languishing in my docs since August of last year. There's nothing happy about it, but I hope you like it anyway. Title and inspiration from the Rilo Kiley song of the same name, because I am nothing if not consistent. Big thanks as always to Amanda and Rachelle for the betas. <3

This wasn’t what he meant to happen. This was never, ever what was meant to happen. Moving to California was supposed to make these feelings go away; an entire country’s worth of distance between them was supposed to be more than enough of a deterrent.

Christy sniffles, and Rhett knows exactly where she is from the echo on the phone. She’s in the master bathroom, pale blue shower curtain and matching rug—unless they’ve changed it since Rhett moved, but he doubts it, knows Link’s love of consistency—and those harsh, bright fluorescents above the mirror, rendering even the tannest skin sickly and washed out.

_“You look like a ghost, man,” Link says, his eyes meeting Rhett’s in the mirror for a brief second before they flutter shut, his mouth parting in an ‘o’ as Rhett drags his hands up and down Link’s bare chest. Link tips his head back, shaggy black hair spilling against Rhett’s shoulder, and Rhett isn’t one to waste an opportunity. He sinks his teeth into the juncture where Link’s long neck and strong shoulder meets, not hard enough to break the skin, just enough to make Link’s knees buckle._

_Rhett knows how Link’s body works. He plays him like an instrument, better suited to this than he’s ever been at the guitar._

_He tightens his grip on Link’s chest and pins his hips against the counter, lavishing kisses on the spot he’s bitten, soothing the ache. He hasn’t left a mark. They know better than that._

_“You look incredible,” he murmurs, and Link laughs, tilting his head further to the side, wordlessly begging for more of Rhett’s mouth._

_He’s never needed to ask Rhett for anything twice._

“You’re sure he didn’t—he didn’t meet anyone while he was out at your place last month?” Christy is doing her best to keep her voice even but Rhett can hear the tears threatening to fall. A cold sweat breaks out along his hairline, down his neck, his stomach turning and twisting into knots. He’s gonna be sick.

“Christy, honey, who would he meet? Only time we weren’t together was when I was at work, and I’m pretty sure he was sleepin’ the whole time.” None of this, precisely, is a lie. It doesn’t make it any easier to say.

_“Mmm,” Link grumbles, shifting from his position face-down in a pile of pillows, flopping onto his back. He stretches languidly, arms going above his head to grasp at the headboard, toes pointing straight out, a long lithe line against the wrinkled white cotton of Rhett’s sheets. Neither of them had bothered putting anything on after they fell into bed last night, sweat-slicked bodies pressed together in the sticky California air, and Link’s body glistens with sweat in the bright morning light. He looks decadent, indulgent, a bronze sculpture come to life, and Rhett can’t even breathe._

_Falling out of the stretch, taut limbs going slack, Link regards Rhett through half-closed eyes, a smile quirking up one corner of his mouth. “Where you think you’re goin’?” he asks, one hand outstretched, beckoning. He lets his legs fall open, brazen and unashamed, and raises an eyebrow. “Come back here.”_

_Rhett groans, rubbing a hand over his face. “It’s already after noon, I gotta go into the office today, my vacation doesn’t officially start til—”_

_“I’m here for two weeks, bo,” Link cuts him off, suddenly serious, “two weeks in this big empty house of yours. Don’t make me spend any of it away from you.” His fingers curl around Rhett’s wrist, warm and familiar, and the look on his face makes Rhett want to weep. It’s the same look that Rhett sees on his own face whenever he catches a glimpse of himself after he and Link talk on the phone—the same neediness, the same naked desire. The same desperation, no matter the cost._

_It’s always been like this. It’s always gonna be like this. He was an idiot to think moving across the country would change anything. He needs Link and Link needs him, like water, like air._

_He falls back into the bed and calls off sick for the rest of the week._

“Did he tell you I’m pregnant, Rhett? Did he even mention that?”

Rhett barely manages to hold back the choking noise that threatens to burst out of him. He squeezes his eyes shut so hard he sees stars. “Of course he told me, but he said not to say anything, or I woulda congratulated you already. Said you’d want to tell people yourself but he couldn’t wait.”

It sounds like the kind of thing a man excited to have a baby with his wife would say.

Link hasn’t mentioned anything.

_“Look at me,” Link says, blinking slow like he’s drugged, long eyelashes casting shadows over his cheeks in the half-dark of the spare room. He’s shirtless and his hair’s mussed and Rhett’s itching to touch him, run his palms over all that bare skin, but twenty five hundred miles is a long way to stretch. He rubs his own thighs to soothe the itch, a poor imitation of Link’s firm touch. He’ll take what he can get._

_“Never stopped,” Rhett whispers, warmth rising in his cheeks. Link grins, canines flashing sharp and white against the plump red of his lower lip._

_“Such a romantic. Take your pants off, lemme see you.”_

_The breath explodes out of Rhett’s lungs like he’s been punched, and his jeans are on the floor before he even realizes he’s moved at all. Link lets out a low whistle, and Rhett can feel his face getting warmer by the second._

_“Where’s—”_

_“Doctor’s appointment,” Link says. He pushes the laptop back on the bed so Rhett can see his whole body, long and lean and beautifully bare, and Rhett knows not to ask any more questions._

“You two—three, I mean—are gonna be just fine, sweetheart. Link would never leave you.”

Christy lets out a shaky chuckle. “Maybe it’s just the pregnancy hormones.” She sighs, and Rhett can picture her pushing her hair behind her ears, maybe rolling her eyes at herself in the mirror. “We’re both lucky to have you as a friend, you know that?”

Rhett’s stomach turns. “Love you, Chris.” It’s absolutely true, which makes it a thousand times worse. “I got somebody at the door though, I gotta go. Say hi to Link for me when he gets home, okay?”

Christy murmurs a goodbye, still a little wobble in her voice but Rhett can tell she’s feeling better, and Rhett lasts thirty seconds after he pushes ‘end’ before he’s dropping the phone on the couch and rushing to the bathroom to empty out everything he’s eaten.

When he emerges, water dripping from his heated face, the taste of acid sour in his throat, there’s three missed calls and two messages on his phone, all from Link. Rhett stares at it, the blinking light in the corner like a watchful eye, an accusation, and when Link’s name flashes across the screen again, the phone vibrating with his incoming call, Rhett switches the phone off.

This was never supposed to happen.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Nothing Wrong](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11271075) by [loudspeakr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/loudspeakr/pseuds/loudspeakr)




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